Features

SuperExpo 2026 returns to the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre from 10 to 12 June. Four exhibitors across software, outdoor blinds, components, and motorisation give WFA a preview of what they are bringing to the floor.

Labour shortages, rising input costs, and growing demand for custom orders are exposing the limits of manual production in Australian blind factories. From CNC fabric cutting through to automated end-of-line packaging, three suppliers outline what the new generation of machinery is delivering on the floor.

Urban density is pushing demand for external screens beyond the traditional 5% openness default. Three suppliers, Ricky Richards, HVG and Weinor Australia, explain what installers need to understand about performance, specification and the limits of what external screens can actually do.

With NCC 2025 energy provisions adoptable from May 2026, honeycomb and pleated blinds are moving into conversations they were rarely part of before, with builders, specifiers and energy assessors now asking what window furnishings actually contribute to thermal performance. Four manufacturers tell WFA how they are responding.

Roman blinds have long been defined by their fabric. What’s changing in 2026 is everything around it: how they’re lifted, how they’re lined, how they’re made, and how they’re sold. Norman, Louvolite and Meyer Blinds each bring a distinct answer to the same question: how do you make a Roman blind easier to specify, faster to fabricate, and more reliable to install?

Recessed tracks are becoming the specification of choice across new residential and commercial builds, battery-powered motorisation continues to outpace wired solutions, and smart-home compatibility is shifting from premium add-on to baseline expectation. Four suppliers share what is driving the change, and what installers and retailers need to get right.

Consumers are spending more carefully and asking better questions. Wilson Fabrics and CW Systems tell WFA how the curtain category is responding in fabric direction, product ranging, and supplier strategy.

When a Melbourne window furnishings company built an architect-designed showroom in South Yarra, it wasn’t making a marketing decision. It was making a bet that human experience would outlast every efficiency the industry could automate.

Quality failures cost manufacturers in remakes, returns, and reputational damage, all of it preventable. Three companies explain how they have moved quality control from a final-gate inspection to a discipline embedded throughout every stage of production.

Heimtextil 2026 in Frankfurt presented a design programme centred on material authenticity, earthy colour storytelling and the creative tension between AI-generated aesthetics and handcraft. For Australian retailers, fabricators and specifiers, the trends translate directly. Coastal, bush and urban residential contexts map closely onto the palettes and textures emerging from this year’s show, writes James Boston.